Second wind tunnel to open on Palm Jumeirah

The world’s biggest wind tunnel is set to open in Dubai in August, but the company behind the project is already planning to open an even bigger version on the famous Palm Jumeirah.

Carlos Euribe, CEO of InFlight Dubai, told Arabian Business the current 16.5 ft tunnel currently being built next to Skydive Dubai’s desert campus will only hold the world record for five months before it gets beaten by a 22 ft tunnel which will open its doors early next year.

“We have the biggest, tallest and strongest wind-tunnel due to open on August 13. We’re also going to have a second tunnel that is opening in the Palm Jumeirah and that is going to be breaking our own world record,” he said.

The first tunnel has a height of 68 ft and wind speeds that can go up to 305 km per hour, exceeding the speed of a category five hurricane.

“Of course we can go up to more but that is the restriction that we have placed just for safety purposes. I don’t think anybody needs that much wind.”

The tunnel can fit 22 people, which will help in InFlight Dubai’s attempt at breaking the current world record. “Right now the world record is 20 people. By doing this we are taking over pretty much the whole sport,” Euribe stated. “The restriction of the 22 people is not because of the power of the engine, it is because of the limit of the space.”

The facility has not yet opened but already over 1,000 hours have been sold on preopening deals. “I can say in a very secure manner that 98 percent of the people that have already purchased are not from here. They are from pretty much all over the world. We sold over a thousand hours without people even seeing the tunnel. Somehow we convinced the people to buy all these hours,” he said.

The minimum amount of time that can be purchased is two minutes, with prices starting from $71. Packages will also be provided for five, ten, 15, 20 and 30 minute intervals. You can even share a full hour of flying time with up to 24 people for $1,030.

Plans for the Palm Jumeirah location have already been approved and as soon as the construction on that site commences, InFlight plans on opening a third location in Dubai, with two new tunnels set to open in both the US and the UK.